You just need to decide whether this bothers you enough -- or whether you care enough about ranking in a game mode with no other rewards -- to quit playing until Blizzard fixes it.
If enough players stop playing due to this exploit, they'll have no choice but to address it.
The level 50 portrait? Really? I consider myself pretty casual, and I got that a while ago. If you don't play enough to finish all your quests, I guess you may feel intimidated by every opponent, all the time.
On the other hand, if you see one of the special coins or lots of golden cards, all it means is that they've spent some money. That's nothing to be intimidated by.
As anchorm4n pointed out, the only thing you should really take note of is the 1000-win portrait. That generally shows they've had a lot of practice and (theoretically, at least) are less prone to misplays. However, it still doesn't mean they are necessarily better than you or that they are even using a good deck at the moment.
As with so much of Hearthstone, the root of the problem is Blizzard's initial decision to pretend the game is free to play. Yes, the word "free" will get you all kinds of attention, but all of that turns sour the moment people realize all of the good stuff is firmly locked behind a paywall.
And then there's the whole dust scam. Letting people dust non-duplicate cards -- literally cannibalizing their own collections for a mere pittance when new cards are already very expensive to buy -- has been the greatest evil genius plan in video game history. Step one: convince people to pay $3 for 10 random cards. Step two: Allow players to literally destroy what they just bought if it wasn't exactly what they were looking for. Yes, "destroy," because the dust you get back does not even come close to making up for what you already spent.
I've been saying from the beginning that it's foolish to dust anything but duplicates, but free players are so desperate to create even one good deck that no one ever listened. I get that they are just doing what they have to do to be competitive in the game, but it all goes back to my original point: Hearthstone was never intended to be kind to free players. Like all free-to-play games, the goal is to make people want what they don't have and then convert from free player to paying customers. If you never pay, you get punished over and over.
This will never end until Hearthstone drops the f2p pretense and starts charging a fair price -- to everyone.
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, Ayala! We've told you over and over that the way to make the game friendlier to new players is to change the goddamned business model!
All of this hand-wringing over which mode would or would not be noob-friendly is INSANE when it costs literally hundreds of dollars to buy into the game in the first place, or to re-enter after a long break.
Skill-based matchmaking makes ZERO sense for Arena. He's right that such a change would greatly annoy existing Arena players.
It's OK to have a mode that doesn't pamper new players. If they absolutely must do it, I would hope they just add a casual Arena mode with no rewards beyond XP. That might actually be a fun compromise, but it would further dilute the queue, and I'm not sure Arena has enough players to keep queue times reasonable if they split it like that.
This is enough to bring Freeze Mage back for sure. And yes, it absolutely is worth playing with Ray of Frost, or any other Freeze card you care to name, because it's a 1/3 body in addition to the damage, all for just 1 mana -- AND it can hit face.
Obviously, you need multiple Freeze effects in your deck, not just one spell, but I'd think that goes without saying.
Sorry, OutOfCards, but I really don't care for this new format with the commentary between cards.
I'm sure you love that it lets you push more ads, but I find it very annoying. I won't be seeing any ads at all if I get my card spoilers from another site.
I would rather see all the cards at once at the top of the page, with all the commentary underneath. Better yet, put the commentary on the card discussion page where it belongs.
Spending a card to bank mana doesn't feel good, plus it's dead against aggro. It doesn't even let you add temporary mana, so it's not like you can cheat out something big the next turn.
Would be better if it also drew a card, but even then maybe not good enough.
You just need to decide whether this bothers you enough -- or whether you care enough about ranking in a game mode with no other rewards -- to quit playing until Blizzard fixes it.
If enough players stop playing due to this exploit, they'll have no choice but to address it.
The level 50 portrait? Really? I consider myself pretty casual, and I got that a while ago. If you don't play enough to finish all your quests, I guess you may feel intimidated by every opponent, all the time.
On the other hand, if you see one of the special coins or lots of golden cards, all it means is that they've spent some money. That's nothing to be intimidated by.
As anchorm4n pointed out, the only thing you should really take note of is the 1000-win portrait. That generally shows they've had a lot of practice and (theoretically, at least) are less prone to misplays. However, it still doesn't mean they are necessarily better than you or that they are even using a good deck at the moment.
"Looks like you've already spent a lot of money on Hearthstone recently. Can we interest you in this big pile of dust?"
As with so much of Hearthstone, the root of the problem is Blizzard's initial decision to pretend the game is free to play. Yes, the word "free" will get you all kinds of attention, but all of that turns sour the moment people realize all of the good stuff is firmly locked behind a paywall.
And then there's the whole dust scam. Letting people dust non-duplicate cards -- literally cannibalizing their own collections for a mere pittance when new cards are already very expensive to buy -- has been the greatest evil genius plan in video game history. Step one: convince people to pay $3 for 10 random cards. Step two: Allow players to literally destroy what they just bought if it wasn't exactly what they were looking for. Yes, "destroy," because the dust you get back does not even come close to making up for what you already spent.
I've been saying from the beginning that it's foolish to dust anything but duplicates, but free players are so desperate to create even one good deck that no one ever listened. I get that they are just doing what they have to do to be competitive in the game, but it all goes back to my original point: Hearthstone was never intended to be kind to free players. Like all free-to-play games, the goal is to make people want what they don't have and then convert from free player to paying customers. If you never pay, you get punished over and over.
This will never end until Hearthstone drops the f2p pretense and starts charging a fair price -- to everyone.
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, Ayala! We've told you over and over that the way to make the game friendlier to new players is to change the goddamned business model!
All of this hand-wringing over which mode would or would not be noob-friendly is INSANE when it costs literally hundreds of dollars to buy into the game in the first place, or to re-enter after a long break.
No interest in this at all, and I'd rather see the team spend its time on something else.
Skill-based matchmaking makes ZERO sense for Arena. He's right that such a change would greatly annoy existing Arena players.
It's OK to have a mode that doesn't pamper new players. If they absolutely must do it, I would hope they just add a casual Arena mode with no rewards beyond XP. That might actually be a fun compromise, but it would further dilute the queue, and I'm not sure Arena has enough players to keep queue times reasonable if they split it like that.
Some of these Hero Powers are WAY better than others.
Are the bad ones intentional traps, or are they trying to bring things into balance after the previous lopsided Duels meta?
So basically the only reason it's a Battlecry instead of just printing it as a 4/6 vanilla is to make it suck if it's summoned rather than played.
Mixed messages, printing this and Deathwarden in the same set.
Explosive Trap thinks this is cute.
This is enough to bring Freeze Mage back for sure. And yes, it absolutely is worth playing with Ray of Frost, or any other Freeze card you care to name, because it's a 1/3 body in addition to the damage, all for just 1 mana -- AND it can hit face.
Obviously, you need multiple Freeze effects in your deck, not just one spell, but I'd think that goes without saying.
Note that it costs (5) or more, so it's even better than it looks, which is already very, very good!
I knew there was going to be some Libram hate in the set!
This may be more impactful than other tech cards have been. There aren't a lot of decks that run zero Deathrattle.
We are going to be seeing a lot of this card.
Seriously, could have been blank. DH always attacks.
Actually crazy. DH is going to need another nerf after this.
Sorry, OutOfCards, but I really don't care for this new format with the commentary between cards.
I'm sure you love that it lets you push more ads, but I find it very annoying. I won't be seeing any ads at all if I get my card spoilers from another site.
I would rather see all the cards at once at the top of the page, with all the commentary underneath. Better yet, put the commentary on the card discussion page where it belongs.
Spending a card to bank mana doesn't feel good, plus it's dead against aggro. It doesn't even let you add temporary mana, so it's not like you can cheat out something big the next turn.
Would be better if it also drew a card, but even then maybe not good enough.
I love this card so much. Can't stop laughing, and I haven't even used it yet.
I hope to Yogg it shows you the card you ruined when the other player draws it.